17 Jun 11
More on late lodgment letters

MEMBER 98 writes:

“OK, so the ATO make it quite clear that the June lodgment ‘concession’ is NOT an extension date, just that they will waive penalties if lodgment and payment are made at the same time and the other criteria are met.

Everybody knows that and clients lodged in that time needed to be briefed to pay on the lodgment day, so they are aware of it as well.

Is it REALLY necessary then for the ATO to now issue letters to ALL of them advising that they were late but penalties have not been raised??

They KNOW THAT.

More useless time and paper wasting, costly, rubbish to deal with and no gain to anyone (except the paper companies and Australia Post).”

MEMBER 99 writes:

“Just thought you might be interested to know that the ATO seem to be issuing late lodgment notices for most clients lodged between 16th May and 6/7th June regardless of whether paid at time of lodgment or not. The 6th June concession does not require us to request a deferral of lodgment/payment so why the notices?

I received a further 4 notices yesterday and going on what’s on the Tax Institute forum everybody else seems to be getting the same. The problem being that should the client be late lodging something in the future no doubt a penalty will be applied straight up rather than giving them a first warning. Almost seems like the ATO might have this in mind?

On top of this what is the client going to think of their agent with these letters being sent and if they start getting penalties applied because they may have had an oversight previously?

Please put pressure on to stop this waste of time as I can see a problem looming for clients and practices.”

The Tax Institute's Tax Counsel DEEPTI PATON responds:

“Thank you to all of our members who have written in to us in relation to this issue. We will be raising this issue at an appropriate ATO forum this week, and will report back in next week’s TaxVine.”